Hail, King Shrek!

In cinemas this week:
Even though the reviews are not very good, you might not be able to resist the green allure of everyone's favourite ogre in:
Shrek the Third (PG)






Out on DVD this week:
Nicolas Cage playes stunt rider, Johnny Blaze, who sold his soul to the devil and is now finally having to pay the price in:
Ghost Rider (15)






And on TV this week:
Stealing Beauty (Sunday, 9.00pm, Film4) - 'Coming of age' drama starring Liv Tyler (and directed by the legendary Bernardo Bertolucci)
Die Hard 2 (Monday, 11.0W0pm, ITV1) - 'Die Harder': John McClane is back for more edge-of-your-seat action
Falling Down (Monday, 9.00pm, ITV2) - Violent and disturbing look at the effect of repressed aggression in modern America, starring Michael Douglas.
Road to Perdition (Monday, 9.00pm, Film4) - Bonds of loyalty are put to the test when a hitman's son witnesses what his father does for a living.
Wimbledon (Friday, 8.30pm, ITV1) - Lightweight romantic comedy, which should at least provide an antidote for those fed up of the tennis!

The Children in the Playground

Tonight I am going to see a poetry performance at the Purcell Rooms in London's South Bank Centre, and one of the poets performing is John Hegley. So I thought that I would post another of his poems as this week's Poem of the Week...

The Children in the Playground

In the playground
the children are playing a game of kiss chase
and one of the children
who seems to want to be chased after
calls out above the screams and laughter
don't chase me!
don't chase me!
and nobody does

A Swift Pure Cry

A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd is a beautiful, lyrical novel about teenager, Shell, whose life begins to fall apart when her mother dies. Tired of looking after her younger brother and sister and bored by the routines of school and church, Shell skips school and hangs around with her friends smoking and cracking jokes and looking for chances that will confirm their growing up.

But what follows is not a simple transition into adulthood but the tragedy of Shell’s hidden pregnancy and the stillbirth of her baby, amid the hypercritical and chaotic thinking of the small Irish community in which she is growing up. No wonder this was also the winner of a prestigious prize this year - the Branford Boase Award 2007.

Click here to download a free extract from the novel.

A televisual movie FEAST!!!

Nothing particularly special out this week at the cinema or on DVD, but that is certainly not the case on TV. This week's television listings boast LOADS of excellent films, of which these are just a selection. (*As always, however, please check with your parents before you watch any of these, as some of them have adult content your parents might not want you to watch.)

The Green Mile (Sunday, 9.00pm, Film 4) - Starring Tom Hanks, this critically acclaimed prison drama was based on a Stephen King short story, just like The Shawshank Redemption (showing at the Film Club in July).
28 Days Later (Sunday, 10.00pm, Channel 4) - The sequel to this terrifying, British 'Zombie' film, 28 Weeks Later, is in cinemas now; see how the 'rage' first began...
The Silence of the Lambs (Sunday, 10.00pm, ITV2) - Terrifying and certainly not for the faint-hearted, this film immortalised Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter, and his taste for human liver...with "a nice Chianti".
Die Hard (Monday, 11.00pm, ITV1) - Die Hard 4.0 is out in cinemas next month; see how it all began, when Bruce Willis' John Maclane was first 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Tuesday, 9.00pm, ITV2) - Kenneth Branagh brings Shelley's gothic horror to the big screen, with a monster made real by Robert De Niro.
East Is East (Tuesday, 10.00pm, More4) - Wonderful film version of Ayub Khan-Din's comedy about a Pakistani family in Salford, and their struggle against the strict Muslim ways their father is trying to preserve.
The King (Tuesday, 10.45pm, Film4) - Gael Garcia Bernal (Babel) plays a prodigal son returning to a Texan town to find his estranged father, with disastrous consequences for the whole family.
Gladiator (Wednesday, 9.00pm, Film4) - Ridley Scott's epic, Oscar-laden depiction of Russel Crowe's Roman 'gladiator' wreaking revenge on the prince who killed his family.
The Magdalene Sisters (Thursday, 9.00pm, Film4) - Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum: provocative but compelling.
Out Of Sight (Friday, 10.20pm, ITV2) - Fans of Oceans 11/12/13 will love George Clooney's stylish turn here as an escaped bank robber entwined with Jennifer Lopez's Detroit cop.
The Big Lebowski (Friday, 11.10pm, Film4) - You might not like this one, but I couldn't let it pass without bringing it to your attention; it is one of my top 10 films of all time.

I learn by going where I have to go...

'The Waking'
by Theodore Roethke

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

from a Portrait of Theodore Roethke (by Mike Nease),
which hangs at Seattle's Blue Moon Tavern

• To see more poems by Theodore Roethke, click here.

• To find out more about the poet himself, click here.

• To read a difficult but fascinating essay about the poem, click here.

The best ever Carnegie award winner!!!

This week, this year's Carnegie Award winner was announced. The Carnegie award is the country's premier prize for teenage fiction. The 2007 winner is called Just In Case and was written by Meg Rosoff (who also wrote How I Live Now - last week's recommendation).

This is what the Carnegie judges had to say about the book:

A story that deals with anxiety, depression and coming of age that has real emotional resonance. This is a distinctive and outstanding book written in an intelligent, yet spare style. There is an ‘edginess’ to the way the author writes; the result is clever and bold. The character of the teenage boy is conveyed in an interesting way and is not at all stereotypical. This is a story of survival in the modern world that is utterly compelling.

Also, this week, the Carnegie panel looked at ALL the Carnegie award winners over the last 70 years, and decided on the ONE book which they felt outshone ALL the others: the Carnegie of Carnegies! And this prestigious and unprecedented prize went to Northern Lights, the first of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy.

An extraordinary journey into a fantasy world, it follows Lyra, accompanied by her daemon, Pantalaimon, on a quest to find Lyra's friend, Roger, who has disappeared. Their travels lead them to the bleak splendour of the North where a team of scientists are conducting unspeakably horrible experiments. The novel is soon to hit the silver screen, with The Golden Compass due in cinemas in December.

You can download an EXTRACT from both of these prize-winning novels by clicking here.

To view the whole list of the Top 10 Carnegies EVER, click here.

This week's films...

Not many great films on TV this week, but I can highly recommend:


Memento (Tue, 9.00pm, Film4) - The story of a man, suffering from short-term memory loss, who uses notes and tattoos to hunt for the man he thinks killed his wife; but the amazing thing here is not the story itself, but HOW it is told.



Not much to celebrate at cinemas this week either, but, if you like your action blockbusters, you could try:


Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (PG) - The Fantastic Four learn that they aren't the only super-powered beings in the universe when they square off against the powerful Silver Surfer and the planet-eating Galactus.




And new on DVD this week:

Blood Diamond (15) - Leonardo DiCaprio film about a fisherman, a smuggler, and a syndicate of businessmen who match wits over the possession of a priceless diamond, this is a ruthless indictment of the illegal trade in 'conflict diamonds' which is ripping apart much of the developing world.

...the solving emptiness

'Ambulances' by Philip Larkin

Closed like confessionals, they thread
Loud noons of cities, giving back
None of the glances they absorb.
Light glossy grey, arms on a plaque,
They come to rest at any kerb:
All streets in time are visited.

Then children strewn on steps or road,
Or women coming from the shops
Past smells of different dinners, see
A wild white face that overtops
Red stretcher-blankets momently
As it is carried in and stowed,

And sense the solving emptiness
That lies just under all we do,
And for a second get it whole,
So permanent and blank and true.
The fastened doors recede. Poor soul,
They whisper at their own distress;

For borne away in deadened air
May go the sudden shut of loss
Round something nearly at an end,
And what cohered in it across
The years, the unique random blend
Of families and fashions, there

At last begin to loosen. Far
From the exchange of love to lie
Unreachable inside a room
The traffic parts to let go by
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are.

To read more poems by Philip Larkin, click here.
To find out more about the poet himself, click here.
To watch a Sky TV News piece about Larkin's 'lost tapes', click here.

...everything changed because of Edmond.

My name is Elizabeth but no one's ever called me that. My father took one look at me when I was born and must have thought I had the face of someone dignified and sad like an old-fashioned queen or a dead person, but what I turned out like is plain, not much there to notice. Even my life so far has been plain. More Daisy than Elizabeth from the word go.

But the summer I went to England to stay with my cousins everything changed. Part of that was because of the war, which supposedly changed lots of things, but I can't remember much about life before the war anyway so it doesn't count in my book, which this is.

Mostly everything changed because of Edmond.

And so here's what happened.

• Click here to read the rest of this extract from How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff.
• Click here for an excellent review of the novel.
• Click here to read about the responses to the book by three different Reading Groups, including one from a secondary school in Debden, not far from Leyton.

Cops and robbers (and some very dangerous monkeys)

New at cinemas
Ten Canoes (15) - rare, beautiful movie about Aboriginal culture, storytelling (and a bit of romance)
Oceans Thirteen (15) - George, Brad and Matt return with their oh-so-cool band of thieves for a third time



New on DVD
Hot Fuzz (15) - The 'Shaun of the Dead' team return with this hilarious action spoof (which also manages to be a great action film in itself too).
Apocalypto (18) - Mel Gibson does 'the end of the Mayan civilisation' like only Mel can.



On TV this week
The Butterfly Effect (Sat, 10.15pm, Channel 4) - complex, teen sci-fi about chaos theory and the power of time travel
The Last of the Mohicans (Sat, 9.00pm, Film4) - epic, award-winning portrayal of life within warring Native American communities
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Sun, 3.55pm, More4) - classic, oscar-winning, 1961 romance starring Audrey Hepburn
Outbreak (Sun, 6.30pm, ITV2) - virus-spreading thriller, and Dustin Hoffman tries to contain the threat
The Talented Mr Ripley (Mon, 9.00pm, Film4) - gripping thriller about duplicitous, machiavellian master-of-disguises, Tom Ripley
Jack and Sarah (Wed, 6.55pm, Film4) - Jack loses his wife in childbirth, and this romantic comedy sees him learning to be a father - all on his own
Phone Booth (Thu, 9.00pm, Film4) - totally gripping thriller where a rather nasty (and clever) terrorist keeps Colin Farrell literally hanging on the line

I found him in the garage

I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. It was the day after we moved into Falconer Road. The winter was ending. Mum had said we'd be moving just in time for the spring. Nobody else was there. Just me. The others were inside the house with Dr. Death, worrying about the baby.

He was lying there in the darkness behind the tea chests, in the dust and dirt. It was as if he'd been there forever. He was filthy and pale and dried out and I thought he was dead. I couldn't have been more wrong. I'd soon begin to see the truth about him, that there'd never been another creature like him in the world.

We called it the garage because that's what the real estate agent, Mr. Stone, called it. It was more like a demolition site or a rubbish dump or like one of those ancient warehouses they keep pulling down at the wharf. Stone led us down the garden, tugged the door open, and shined his little flashlight into the gloom. We shoved our heads in at the doorway with him.

"You have to see it with your mind's eye," he said. "See it cleaned, with new doors and the roof repaired. See it as a wonderful two-car garage."

He looked at me with a stupid grin on his face.

"Or something for you, lad-a hideaway for you and your pals. What about that, eh?"

I looked away. I didn't want anything to do with him. All the way round the house it had been the same. Just see it in your mind's eye. Just imagine what could be done. All the way round I kept thinking of the old man, Ernie Myers, that had lived here on his own for years. He'd been dead nearly a week before they found him under the table in the kitchen. That's what I saw when Stone told us about seeing with the mind's eye. He even said it when we got to the dining room and there was an old cracked toilet sitting there in the comer behind a plywood screen. I just wanted him to shut up, but he whispered that toward the end Ernie couldn't manage the stairs. His bed was brought in here and a toilet was put in so everything was easy for him. Stone looked at me like he didn't think I should know about such things. I wanted to get out, to get back to our old house again, but Mum and Dad took it all in. They went on like it was going to be some big adventure. They bought the house. They started cleaning it and scrubbing it and painting it. Then the baby came too early. And here we were.

This is an extract from Skellig by David Almond. Winner of countless awards when it was first published in 2001, it tells the story of Michael, a schoolboy who discovers a miraculous companion hiding in the decrepid remains of his family shed. It's a beautiful, sentimental novel - about hope, love and the power of dreams... Some of you might have read it with me in Y7; to the rest of you, I would highly recommend it. [And we've copies in the stock room to lend you if you so wish...]

To read a review of the novel, click here.
To find out more about the author, David Almond, click here.
To buy the book, click here.

When the black dreams came...

'Autobiography'
by Louise Macneice (1907-1963)

In my childhood trees were green
And there was plenty to be seen.
Come back early or never come.

My father made the walls resound,
He wore his collar the wrong way round.
Come back early or never come.

My mother wore a yellow dress;
Gentle, gently, gentleness.
Come back early or never come.

When I was five the black dreams came;
Nothing after was quite the same.
Come back early or never come.

The dark was talking to the dead;
The lamp was dark beside my bed.
Come back early or never come.

When I woke they did not care;
Nobody, nobody was there.
Come back early or never come.

When my silent terror cried,
Nobody, nobody replied.
Come back early or never come.

I got up; the chilly sun
Saw me walk away alone.
Come back early or never come.

* * * *

MacNeice's mother suffered gynaecological problems, a mental breakdown, which meant she left the family to go into a nursing-home in 1913, and, finally, death from tuberculosis a year later - when Macneice was only 6 years old. The loss of his mother at such an early age had a profound and lasting effect on him; his sister Elizabeth writes that “His last memory-picture of her walking up and down the garden path in tears seems to have haunted him for the rest of his life”. '

Autobiography', therefore, is exactly that...

To find out loads of interesting things about the poet and his life, click here.
To read more of his poems, click here.